In April of 2015, Carol Willis, a retired school teacher from Oakdale, La., and the mother of three grown children, developed a nagging cough and discovered a mass on her right side.
Carol noticed that she been losing weight, having difficulty focusing her thoughts, and becoming easily fatigued. After showing the mass to her daughter, a nurse practitioner, she immediately saw a urologist.
“I had a CT scan, and the doctor confirmed that it was kidney cancer,” she says. “The specialists told me I had Stage IV renal cell carcinoma.” She soon had surgery to remove the large tumor.
At her follow-up appointment, her doctor explained that, despite the surgery, Carol’s cancer had spread to her lungs and liver. At that point she was referred to an oncologist who was a principal investigator on a clinical trial. “That’s when I knew this was really serious,” she says.
She entered into a clinical trial investigating Opdivo in combination with another I-O treatment, Yervoy, for certain patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) whose kidney cancer has spread.“
After experiencing a few initial side effects, I had an excellent response to the Opdivo and Yervoy combination,” she recalls. Now in remission, Carol has had clean scans since January 2016.
“I was always active and healthy, and now I feel great, finally like myself,” she says.
As she has been regaining strength, Carol has resumed favorite activities such as woodworking, a passion she shares with her uncle Jerry.
A self-described “private person,” Carol enjoys a quiet life style now and has resumed her hobby of woodworking. She also travels often to spend time with her children and six grandchildren in Texas and Colorado.
“Over the past few years I had the opportunity to meet and speak with a number of Bristol-Myers Squibb employees,” Carol says. “I’ve heard so many of their personal stories. They are so passionate about what they do to help patients. If it weren’t for their skill and dedication, I wouldn’t be here to enjoy my life.” ⬣